Ossian Smyth (Dún Laoghaire, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 54:

In page 34, between lines 11 and 12, to insert the following: “(3) The Commission may specify requirements to be met for the purpose of ensuring compliance with subsection (1) and the manner of publication of a code of practice referred to in that subsection including, without limitation, any requirements to ensure that the code of practice and procedures for dealing with complaints and settling disputes are fair, prompt, transparent, inexpensive and non-discriminatory.”.

This amendment was also flagged on Committee Stage and amends section 40 of the Bill. The purpose is to provide ComReg with the ability to specify requirements to be met to ensure compliance with section 41, which requires operators to have a code of practice. There is currently an obligation under regulation 27(2) of the universal service regulations for operators to have a code of practice for complaints handling.

Under this regulation, ComReg may specify requirements to be met to ensure compliance with this obligation. This is an important tool for ComReg and the amendment provides it with that same tool under Part 5.

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